Winterbeast 1992 Story, screenplay and directed by Christopher Thies. It's Christopher's only film, he passed away at age 50 in 2015. A no budget film that was shot on 16MM and Super8 film in 1986 and 1989. Filmed in Newbury Massachusetts.
The local Park Rangers are worried about the disappearance of some people on the mountain. Turns out there's a demon associated with a native carving. The demon is depicted with stop motion animation, not the best stop motion but it is somewhat imaginative. The little animated clips sprinkled through the film are sometimes the best thing about a scene. There aren't any credits listed on the IMDb page so I've no info about the animators. The IMDb Trivia Page says: The totem pole monster and the skeleton head that rips out of a man's stomach are both props taken from the Dokken music video Burning like a Flame.
It's a monster film with little or no production values, a cast with really limited abilities, a lack luster script, and minimal competency behind the camera. Yet, we were able to get through it with only a slight increase of the level of annoyance that time was passing so slowly. It's a movie that makes it's 77 mins seem like 90 plus. It has some entertainment value, the guy playing the crazy lodge owner was fun to watch, but a lot of my amusement seemed to be laughing at the movie not with it. There's a nice new Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome but you don't need to take a chance wasting your money on that. There's a link to the movie on YouTube so you can test drive it. Who knows you might need that Blu-ray. I don;t think I do.
Savage Dawn 1985 Screenplay by Max Bloom and Bill Milling, directed by Simon Nuchtern. It's Simon's last film of nine, his most well known film has to be Snuff, notorious for being a film with scenes of real murder, but sadly he's only got an uncredited bit of material in that. None of his other films look familiar and they don't generate many good comments on the IMDb. Back in 1970 Simon was the sound editor on Hercules In New York, that's the film where Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Hercules and Arnold Stang plays another annoying guy from New York. It has some entertainment value from it's oddness.
It's a bikers invade a small town film with Lance Henriksen as the loner, ex-career soldier spy who helps the townies fight back. George Kennedy plays Lance's old Company pal, crippled in a wheel chair but still willing to fight back. William Forsythe plays the leader of the 30 or so bikers. They cause some trouble in the bar and cheat at a no holds barred boxing match, so they get tossed out of the bar. Leo Gordon plays the sheriff, his gun and that of his deputy, push the bikers out of town. William promises to be back.
There's a couple of skirmishes with the bikers before the big all out push in the last part of the film. It's all typical action footage with fist fights, gun shooting, motorcycle riding, explosions and a big old Army tank. Some of the action footage is OK, some is not so good.
Karen Black plays a slutty lady who turns against the town and hooks up with William. They have a short relationship. Richard Lynch is the creepy reverend. He gets crushed by a tank. Sam Kinison has a small part as a bible spouting barber. He comes to a quick end.
It's better than Winterbeast but not much. Simon might be a mediocre director or he might be dancing to the beat of some music we can't comprehend. Some of his scenes work fine, others not so good. He didn't make anymore movies and he's still around. There's a watchable copy on YouTube that you can check out in the link above. Another film available on a Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray. It was still entertaining to watch but I wouldn't bother buying a copy.
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